FORM Magazine says of this Dutch designer, “For close to 20 years, Jacco Maris has been cooking up inventive, lovely lighting.” Maris’ early interior design education took place in the Utrecht in his home country of The Netherlands. He also spent some time at the Design Academy Eindhoven, a school that nurtures the talents of many of the country’s biggest design stars. In 1994, he launched his own firm, beginning with window displays and then moving into interior design. Maris’s first collection was born when a client asked him to create a light fixture for a room he had designed. His inspiration sprung organically from his life, as he enjoyed taking trips to the scrapyard, where he would gather raw materials for what would become one of his early signature materials: curvy steel. “I bought a roll of metal and found some tubes and other materials at the scrapyard,” he explains. “My first small collection was called Ruban Plié, which is French for bent steel.”

The year was 1996, and Jacco has never looked back, continually pushing the stylistic envelope. Though he’s become known for the elegantly entwined metal sculptures punctuated with light sources, he has pushed into new material territory with his latest releases, such as the Ode 1647 and the Outsider, its shape morphing from a cache of headlights salvaged from Russian tractors he found. This fixture was the biggest departure from his former style. “I’m not trying to make a collection that fits together,” he says. “I am attempting to create a series of icons.” Maris told Architects + Artisans: “We love to create especially beautiful designs with unique materials which complete the living space, both beautiful and functional. And we try to make sure it is a great, timeless choice because we only love to create lights that stay.” Considering the praise by the media, he's done just that!